Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-188130 and its family member US 2005/0140149 disclose a vehicle door lock apparatus having parts that are affixed to a vehicle frame and parts that are affixed to a door that is openable and closable with respect to the vehicle frame. Such a vehicle door lock apparatus is capable of holding the door closed with respect to the vehicle frame. For this purpose, this known vehicle door lock apparatus includes, among other things, a housing, a latch mechanism, an actuating mechanism (lock mechanism), a key sub-lever, a switch lever, and a plurality of switches.
In the vehicle door lock apparatus described in JP 2005-188130 and US 2005/0140149, a latch chamber (latch mechanism accommodating unit) and a housing chamber (lock mechanism accommodating unit) are formed in the interior of the housing. The latch mechanism is housed in the latch chamber. The latch mechanism is capable of holding the door closed with respect to the vehicle frame. The actuating mechanism is housed in the housing chamber and is capable of actuating the latch mechanism.
As shown in FIG. 4 of JP 2005-188130 and US 2005/0140149, a first switch is housed in the latch chamber. The first switch is capable of detecting a state of a fork that constitutes a part of the latch mechanism. As shown in FIG. 7 of JP 2005-188130 and US 2005/0140149, a second switch is housed in the housing chamber. The second switch is capable of detecting a state of the actuating mechanism in accordance with the displacement of the key sub-lever. As shown in FIG. 8 of JP 2005-188130 and US 2005/0140149, a third switch is housed in the housing chamber. The third switch is capable of detecting another state of the actuating mechanism in accordance with the displacement of the switch lever. The key sub-lever and the switch lever are supported by the housing such that they are pivotable about the same axis.
As shown in FIG. 3 of JP 2005-188130 and US 2005/0140149, a connector and a plurality of terminals are provided in the housing. A specific configuration of the terminals is unclear in these publications. However, the first to third switches are considered to be connected to the terminals.
Because the switches are disposed in a distributed (spaced apart) manner in this known vehicle door lock apparatus, the wires that connect the switches to the terminals must be relatively long and it is difficult to reduce the size of such a vehicle door lock apparatus.